Effective Rate Design
Two by Four, not a Nudge
Some might think that tweaking rates is all that is needed. This is false. Effective rate design must get customers’ attention. It is not a precise science that should be constrained by gradualism.
Law & Lawyers
Monetizing Energy Storage
Massachusetts Case Study
Currently, California and Oregon are the only states to issue an energy storage mandate. Massachusetts is considering whether to establish such a mandate and if procurement targets are warranted, the amount of additional energy storage to procure.
Health Benefits of Energy Efficiency
A No-Brainer
We can make the standard arguments about why energy efficiency makes sense. But there is also another benefit: Improved energy efficiency provides direct health benefits to low-income households.
Capitalism Debates Socialism in Honolulu
Hawaii Considering Alternatives to Private Sector Ownership
Lawmakers in Hawaii are really asking three interconnected questions. Do we need stockholders or shareholders to finance our electric utility? Are we comfortable with private sector management setting goals for the local electricity business? If the electric business is run publicly as a not-for-profit, how will we set rates?
Architecture for the Integrated Grid
Built to Last Means Built to Change
To realize the full value of distributed resources and to serve all consumers at the highest standards of quality and reliability, the grid needs to expand its scope. What is needed is an intentional architecture that enables communication and coordination between devices and systems, regardless of their manufacturer.
Challenging Common Excuses for Ignoring Grid Analytics
Heart of Digital Transformation Strategy
The three barriers to grid analytics – fear, uncertainty and doubt – can be overcome. Indeed, if utilities want to remain competitive, they should be. Where companies have moved ahead with successful implementations, the benefits are manifest.
December Birthdays
Edward Hammer, Bertha Lamme Feicht, William Merrill, Marcel Deprez
Hammer came up with the idea of making the fluorescent into a spiral in the shape of, well, a bulb.
Dripping Electricity
It leaked, she contended, out of empty sockets if the wall switch had been left on.
Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.
In Only the Second Period of Low Real Rates and Bills
How Should We Manage and Regulate Now?
Electric bills this March were just a tick off the pace of the all-time low. In this unique period, how should we regulate utilities? Should we correct course? Should we allow greater growth of non-fuel costs to – let’s say – buy some more reliability?
Energy People: Ben Fowke
We talked with Ben Fowke, who leads Xcel Energy
Ben Fowke and Steve Mitnick discuss Xcel’s rapidly growing wind resources. They made up 17 percent of the energy provided to Xcel’s customers in 2015, generating more power than nuclear and nearly as much as natural gas. By 2020, Xcel projects that 24 percent of its energy will come from wind.